Studies have revealed that 80% of Nigerian women outlive men. It is a fact of life that men enjoy certain physical advantages over women. On average, men are stronger, muscular and weird authority in all ramifications. But none of these attributes seem to matter when it comes to longetivity, because providence seems to be partial to women in that regards. Studies have shown that women live longer than men sometimes by a margin as much as 10years. The death rates for women are lower than those for men at all ages. In this report, City People Fashion Editor, BOLA AKINBOADE brings to you the real reasons why women live longer than men. Some of these reasons are even more behavioral than the biological differences between the sexes. They can also be attributed to the differences in the effects of medical technology as well as socio and psychological factors.
THE BIG DELAY OF HEART DISEASE IN WOMEN
Heard disease is the main cause of the gender gap. One important reason and advantage women have over men is the big delay in terms of cardiovascular disease like heart attack and stroke. Men are more prone to heart disease than women even at a very young age while for women, it is not until when they are over 50 years old.
One reason for that delay in onset of cardiovascular disease could be that women are relatively iron-deficient compared to men, especially younger women, mostly those in their late teens and early 20s, because of menstruation. Iron plays a very important part in the reactions in our cells which produce damaging free radicals, which glom onto cell membranes and DNA, and may translate into aging the cell.
CHROMOSOMAL DIFFERENCES
Chromosomal differences between men and women also affect their mortality rates. The sex determining chromosomes can carry genetic mutations that cause a number of life threatening diseases, including muscular dystrophy and hemophilia. Because women have two X chromosomes, a female with an abnormal gene on one of her X chromosomes can use the normal gene on the other and thereby avoid the expression of the diseases (though she is still a carrier of the defect). Men, in contrast have one X chromosome and one Y chromosome, and so they cannot rely on an alternative chromosome if a gene on one of the sex chromosomes is defective.
There is also increasing interest in women’s second X chromosome as a longetivity factor in and of itself. Although one of the two Xs is randomly inactivated early in life, the second X seems to become more active with increasing age. Men don't have this luxury and don't get this choice.
THE GENDER HORMONE DIFFERENCES
Experts have revealed that the gender differences in mortality patterns may be influenced at least in part by sex hormones, namely the male hormone testosterone and the female hormone estrogen.Estrogen works differently than the testosterone that is produced in a man’s body. Because the male hormone has been linked with aggression and competitiveness as well as libido, doctors ascribe this spike in male mortality to “testosterone toxicity”. Later in life, testosterone puts men at risk biologically as well as behaviorally.It increases blood levels of the bad cholesterol (known as LDL- Low Density Lipoprotein) and decreases levels of the good one(HDL- High Density Lipoprotein), putting men at greater risk of heart disease and stroke.
Estrogen on the other hand, has beneficial effects on Cardiovascular health, loweing LDL cholesterol and increasing HDL cholesterol. Estrogen is also an anti-oxidant, that is, it neutralizes certain naturally occuring , highly reactive chemicals, called oxygen radicals that have been implicated in neutral and vascular damage and aging. Experts also reveal that treatment with estrogen after menopause reduces a woman’s risk of dying from heart disease and stroke, as well as her risk of dying in general.
MENSTRAL CYCLE IN WOMEN
Another contribution to the longetivity in women is the role menstruation plays in women. Because of the monthly shedding of the uterine lining, premenppausal women typically have 20% less blood in their bodies than men and a correspondingly lower iron load. Because iron formations are essential for the formation of oxygen radicals, a lower iron load could lead to a lower rate of aging, cardiovascular disease and other age-related diseases in which oxygen radicals play a role.
Also a woman’s heart tends to be more active primarily because of how the menstruation process causes the heart to exercise and to work at a greater level.
What happens in menstruation that causes a woman’s heart to become active is that the estradiol hormone is released in the woman’s body during the process. Estradiol will work to give the woman’s heart a greater amount of energy because this is an especially powerful form of estrogen that can cause her heart to be more active. It is more powerful than other types of estrogen that can be found in a woman’s body. Because of the workout that is given to the heart during the menstruation period the heart will be able to work at a better rate and as a result, reduces aging and death rate.
WOMEN HAVE SLOWER METABOLISM
Women also have a slower metabolism than men, a distinction that makes them more prone to obesity. But there may also be an inverse relation between metabolic rate and lifespan. Although, it is still not known why men’s metabolism rates are faster than women’s, it is becoming clear that this difference is present almost from the moment of conception, when male embryos divide faster than female ones. The faster metabolic rate may make men’s cells more vulnerable to breakdown, or it may simply mean that male life cycle is completed more promptly than the female one.
LIFESTYLE
The lifestyle of both genders is another factor to consider in the longetivity disparity.
In general, there are maybe three things men do worse than women. They smoke a lot more. Men are generally found to be more likely to smoke or drink alcohol than women. And that is why illness related to smoking and alcohol consumption kill more men than women.
STRESS
Most men tend not to deal with their stress as well as women. They may be more prone to internalizing their stress rather than letting go. And stress plays a very important role in cardiovascular disease.
PRESSURE TO KEEP UP WITH FAMILY ISSUES
Also, the fact that men have been tagged as the bread winner in the family also put them under a lot of pressure. The stress of providing for the family and meeting up with the standard of living in the current hard economic situation, has also lead to a lot of sudden death in men in recent times.
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